The Earth's Pulse
by MrKawaiijake
Summary: Edward Elric finds himself stranded in a new world and has lost the ability to transmute anything with alchemy. He has an idea that maybe he can unlock his alchemical abilities in this world with earthbending as an energy channel.
1. Almost Dead

**This is a roleplay my friend and I are doing! We plan on having some homosexual themes but nothing graphic or anything. It should be obvious but if you're a homophobic person, just stop reading right now. Other than that, enjoy! ****-Mrkawaiijake & Smokeybubble **

Stormy clouds swirled around in the air of the Earth Kingdom. They were so tightly packed, every few moments a bolt of lightning would explode in a shimmering display of friction. The ground rumbled and shook, uprooting some trees that were not stable enough to grip the moving soil. A human figure lay amongst the chaos, practically motionless. He stared up at the dark sky, out of breath and fading fast. _Something went wrong... Where am I...?_ he thought. He groaned and rolled over, gripping his side to try and stop the immense pain he was feeling. _Gotta find someone... _He twisted his body and stretched out an arm, trying to pull himself forward. The pain in his abdomen was too much to bare, he grit his teeth and whimpered quietly before falling unconscious.

"...mista? Mista, you gonna wake up?" A high voice was shrill in his ear. A chubby hand prodded his shoulder.

The man's eyes fluttered open briefly before falling shut again, a raspy moan escaping his lips.

"Wake up mista!" the voice insisted.

"Is 'e dead?" Someone else poked at his back, sounding all at once excited and scared.

"Nah, I seen 'im move!" the first said crossly.

"Why's 'e just lyin' there then?"

"I dunno. Maybe 'e's tired. Why else?"

A hand reached up and gripped one of the boy's shirts.

At the touch, he let out a terrified squeal and stumbled back, tripped over his feet, and fell flat on his rump in the dirt. "'E 'aint dead! Mansur, 'e 'aint dead!"

The hand fell to the ground when the scared child jerked away. He drew his head up from the dirt and stared hollowly into the pair of eyes in front of him. "Water," he whispered and held eye contact for another few moments before letting his face fall to the ground and slipping back into darkness.

The two children shared a confused look over his prone body.

"Is 'e dead _now_?" Mansur asked, eyeing the man warily. The other stood and began trotting back the way they had come.

"C'mon, let's go get Kaori! She'll know what to do!" He beckoned impatiently down the dirt road. "'Urry up!"

"You sure? I always thought she were a little scary..." Mansur said. But he got up anyway and followed his friend down the road, towards the small cluster of buildings in the distance.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

The man jolted awake from unconsciousness. He was no longer laying on the cold, hard ground, now he was in a small padded cot. The soft morning light spread a sense of calm around the clay room. It was an extreme change from the constant storm clouds overhead that were once there. He sat up and brushed strands of long blond hair out of his face. He looked down at himself to find cotton bandages around his almost bare torso.

"So, you're finally back with us!"

He gasped at looked towards the sudden voice breaking the silence. "Huh?" was all he could manage to get out.

A tall woman, long black hair cascading down her back in shining waves, stood from her chair by the door and set down the needle and cloth in her hand. "My name is Kaori," she said, crossing the room and smiling down at him.

"Hi," he stuttered slightly, "uh, my name is Edward."

"Well Edward, I have to say, I've never seen anything quite like that before." She motioned to his right arm, the automail glinting in the sunlight streaming through the open window. "It gave me a shock when I first saw it."

Edward gripped his arm and stared at his toes through the thin blanket, "Yeah, people aren't too used to seeing this sort of thing." He looked back at Kaori with a serious expression, "So where am I? Also, what happened?"

Kaori opened her mouth as though to inquire further, but seemed to decide against it. "You're in Senlin, in the western Earth Kingdom," she answered instead. "As for what happened, you're going to have to tell me. Those boys found you passed out on the side of the road, with no indication of how you got there."

"_Earth Kingdom? _What the hell is the _Earth Kingdom_?" He asked cocking one of his eyebrows, completely ignoring everything else she said.

Kaori looked at him in disbelief. "The Earth Kingdom," she said, as though it was obvious. "The biggest nation in the world. The one that stands for, you know, earth?"

"What are you talking about?" He laughed, "I'm from Amestris."

"Is that a town?" Kaori asked, a confused expression on her face. "I've never heard of it."

"Uh, right..." Edward squinted his eyes at her. "Well, thank you for cleaning up my wounds," he said trying to change the subject. _Something weird is going on here... _He thought _What the hell happened...? _

"It's no trouble!" Kaori said brightly. If she noticed his evasion, she let it pass without comment. "It's actually about time for me to change them, if you don't mind."

"Nope," He said, trying to steer the conversation to an end.

"Alright, then if I can get you to sit on the edge of the bed," Kaori instructed, crossing the room and pulling strips of white bandages from a cabinet.

Edward swung his legs out from under the thin sheet, only in his underwear. He realized this and leaned forward a little, trying to cover up a little. His automail leg clicked and whirred as it moved.

Kaori snorted under her breath at his embarrassment, then quickly checked the numerous gashes and scrapes littered across his torso. "You're healing well," she commented, obviously pleased. "Though I have no idea how you got these. What did you do, decide it would be fun to be dragged through the mud for a few hours?"

"I don't know," he said leaning back on his hands, "I just remember being hungry and thirsty and passing out a lot." He was done being subtle. "I honestly don't even remember how I got here or where I even am. And no-" he started before she could respond, "-the _Earth Kingdom_ means nothing to me, I don't know where that is."

"But then, how did you get in the road?" Kaori's eyebrows furrowed, hands deftly wrapping the clean clothes over his injuries.

"Look, I appreciate the medical help but what part of 'I don't know how I got here,' don't you understand?" Edward looked at her with a serious expression.

Kaori shrugged. "Maybe you could ask the Avatar."

"What is an _avatar?_" he frowned, "some sort of library guy?"

Kaori looked shocked. "Of course not! He's our... our..." she gestured for a moment, searching for the word. "Not leader, exactly, but he helps keep the peace between our four nations. It's because he can bend each element."

"Oh...?" Edward's voice wavered as he pretended to understand what she was saying, "So, where can I find this... _avatar_?"

"Whoa there boy, you're in no condition to go traipsing off looking for him! He's likely off in Ba Sing Se, or in that new city I've been hearing so much about. You just lay right back down and focus on gettin' your strength back."

The blonde scoffed in annoyance and forcefully leaned back against his pillow. _I'm gonna find out what the hell is going on... _


	2. Special Delivery for the Avatar

An explosion sounded from the middle of the Earth Kingdom's newest creation: Republic City. Official guards rushed to the site only to find none other than Avatar Aang in a stone cart, filled with debris.

"Mr. Avatar, we've asked you before not to ride the postal system..." One of the guards said.

Aang smiled bashfully and stood up by pushing an air current under him until his feet were on the ground. "Sorry, I couldn't help myself!"

"Yeah, give us a little air!" Bits of broken rubble shot out in every direction as a girl stuck her head out from a pile of shattered cart pieces. "We've been working for days, and I'd say we deserve a little break!" The pile blasted apart with a jerk of her head, and she clambered to her feet, dust settling on her clothes and dark hair.

"Sorry Toph!" Aang chirped and spun his arms, criss-crossing each other a few times before he pushed them up into the air, the rocks shot up, clearing the ground. Aang stuck his arms out in front of him forcefully, creating a cushion for the now falling rocks to land out without causing more destruction.

Toph grinned at him, then rounded on the guard, folding her arms petulantly over her chest. "As I was saying, hardworking Avatar Aang has a right to have fun every once and awhile. So why don't you back off and let him relax for more than a few minutes without one of you chuckleheads coming to him with some stupid, little problem!" For such a short girl, the intimidating aura she cast off was surprisingly strong.

"Ye-Yes Ms. Toph," The guard she was in front of stuttered. "Uh, carry on then!" One said before leading the others away from them.

"That's right!" she shouted at their retreating backs. "And don't you forget that next time either!"

"Avatar Aang!" a man called, running towards the two from a separate part of the city-in-progress.

"What now?" Toph snapped. "If you haven't noticed, we're a little busy here!"

He jumped back, "I have a message for the Avatar. From the Western part of the Earth Kingdom," He handed Aang an envelope. As soon as the parcel was out of the guards hands he quickly retracted his arm away from the earth bender.

Aang peeled away the wax seal and took out the piece of paper inside. "_Dear, Avatar Aang,_" He started to read aloud, "_There have been reports of strange weather patterns in the Western Earth Kingdom near the Senlin village. We request that you visit and diagnose the problem yourself. We feel as though it has something to do with the spirit world and you are the only one who can solve what is happening._"

Toph interrupted him with a groan. "You see? I told you, they can't even deal with a little weather by themselves without needing us to hold their hands."

"Hm, well this sounds a little important," Aang's eyes rolled over the paper once more. "Let's get the others and go check it out. As you said, we could use a break!" He smiled and trotted off.

"What? But we've only had a couple runs!" Toph whined. When he didn't look back, she grumbled under her breath, something about "Twinkletoes" and "stupid avatar business", but followed him nevertheless.

Back at Republic City's council building, Sokka, Zuko, and Katara were all planning on the main meeting room's design.

"The desks should go here!" Sokka pointed towards a corner of the blank room.

"Are you kidding?" Katara argued, "That would completely mess up this room's energy flow!"

"Energy flow, blah blah blah!" Sokka moved his hand to brush off Kataras words, "none of that is important! Looks are what counts and I'm telling you, _**this **_looks good!"

"You're so stubborn! If the chi doesn't flow in this room then there will be so much tension during the meetings."

"Umm guys?" Zuko broke in, waving a little to gain their attention.

"Ugh! Women! Why do things always have to go your way all the time?" Sokka complained.

"What do you mean '_women_'," Katara emphasised her words with carefully place air quotes around the word: women.

"I mean _women_ are always so bossy!"

"Excuse me?!" Katara just about yelled, "I couldn't hear you over the sound of my gender!"

"Guys, can we focus here? It's not even that important," Zuko tried again, raising his voice.

Both Katara and Sokka ignored him. "Gender is not the problem here," Sokka's voice started to get louder to drown out Zuko.

"How stupid are you?" Katara yelled.

"HEY!" Zuko shouted, a warning jet of flame licking the air between the quarreling siblings as his fragile temper finally broke. "Does it even matter?" He snapped, exasperated. "I've been listening to you two fight for hours. It's furniture, for God's sake!"

"Tch!" they both scoffed in unison.

"Shows what you know about interior design!" Sokka had started to rant more about his amazing talents at room decoration, but was stopped by the sound of the door opening.

"Hey guys!" The airbender shouted as he lept into the room, "Who wants to visit..." He paused to pull out the paper again, "...Senlin?"

"Where?" Zuko asked.

"A small village in the middle of the Western Earth Kingdom."

"Sounds nice," Katara smiled.

"Oh, thank you!" Zuko moaned. "If I have to listen to these two any longer, I'm gonna burn my own ears off."

"So then it's settled!" Aang said and kicked up into the air slightly. "We're all going to Senlin!"

"No way!" Sokka interjected, "I'm staying here. _Someone_ needs to make all these executive design choices while you're away." He smiled at Katara with an expression practically screaming, _Ha, you don't get to make any more choices that I don't like_. She furrowed her eyebrows but said nothing.

"Well, it all looks great to me!" Toph smiled, looking pointedly around the room with her blank, gray eyes.

Sokka frowned, "You're so cruel to me sometimes."

"So what's in Senlin?" Zuko asked. A glint had already appeared in his eye at the prospect of leaving the stifling city.

Aang took out the parchment from inside of his shirt and unfolded it, scanning for a reminder. "Um," he stalled, "looks like really weird weather patterns."

Zuko slumped. "Weather patterns?" he echoed, as though hoping he'd heard it wrong. "That's what it's about? Some weird looking clouds?"

Aang turned the paper over in his hands, "I'm not really sure, it looks like it was written really quickly. It even has a 'RUSH DELIVERY' stamp on it."

"Stop being picky Zuko," Toph said. "Anything to get you away from Sokka and Katara, right?" Zuko just scowled at her, and turned away to brood.

"Hey!" Katara protested, "hot-head here is the annoying one!"

"I don't think there's anymore Avatar stuff I have to do here," Aang partially interrupted her before anymore fighting continued, "so lets get going!" He smiled and started out the door.

"Wait for me!" Katara quickly scurried after him and waved goodbye to Sokka.

Zuko pushed himself off the wall, nodded farewell, and strolled out a beat later, but Toph paused before following.

"If they ask us where we've gone, just say Avatar stuff," she reminded him. "And have fun with Suki. You should unwind a little." With a roguish wink, she shut the door behind her and hurried to where Appa was crouching, preparing to take off.

Sokka blushed and opened his mouth to say something but Toph was already out the door.

Aang was straddled on top of Appa's head, ready to get into the air. "Come on Toph!" He shouted down at her.

"The town isn't going anywhere, Twinkletoes," she said, carefully feeling along Appa's leg for a foothold. "Give me a second."

"Yipyip!" Aang shouted not hearing her, the bison bent it's legs and leaped into the air.

"Hey!" Toph shrieked, falling backward as the massive wall of fur suddenly slid through her fingers, dumping her gracelessly on the ground. "Twinkletoes, get your ass back down here, you _idiot_!"

Aang looked back and saw that she wasn't on the saddle with Katara. He lead Appa back to the ground and landed right next to her with a ground shaking THUMP. "Woah! Sorry I thought you got on!"

A small rock hurtled through the air and caught him in the shoulder, not enough to hurt, but enough to knock him flat on his back on Appa's neck.

"Just drive," Toph growled, and settled herself grumpily on the rim of Appa's saddle.

Aang laughed apologetically and gave the orders for Appa to take off again. With a loud _whoosh_, the ground fell away. The wide, blue sky opened up all around them, and Aang turned them east, out over the sprawling plains that rushed by beneath them.


	3. Stop popin' your stitches boy!

After what seemed like an hour or two of flying, Katara finally broke the silent sound of wind rushing past them with an audible gasp.

"This looks important," Aang said under his breath as the unnatural clouds came into view. Just ahead of them lay almost a wall of dark, ominous clouds. Lightning sparked and flickered in the dark masses. The clouds almost appeared solid, stealing all the light around them. Even from their altitude they could all hear the ground shake and rumble.

"What? What is it?" Toph demanded, frustration bleeding into her voice.

"We better land somewhere else," Aang said steering Appa slightly off course to what looked like a small town on the outskirts of the dark force field.

Aang kept his eyes on the village as it grew more and more details. He guided the flying beast down to the ground in the middle of the towns clearing. He slid off Appa's nose and patted him, "Good job buddy," he said positively. Katara carefully climbed down from Appa on his tail. She brushed off her skirt and looked around. The town was a lot more simple than the growing Republic City that she had spent her time in for the past few weeks. All of the buildings were made of wood and a few fancier ones had brick entryways. The streets were cobblestoned and out of shape. Townspeople were standing on the side of the clearing, trying to see what all the commotion was about after hearing rumors that the Avatar was visiting their little village and of something new in the sky.

Zuko jumped lightly down after Aang and surveyed their surroundings, an unreadable expression on his face. "Got any ideas yet?" he asked quietly, glancing up at the roiling storm flashing above them.

"Not a clue," He responded, "it almost looks unreal..."

"Excuse me," a soft voice interrupted timidly. "Are-are you the Avatar?" A woman had split from the main crowd and crept up beside them, an awed look in her dark eyes. Raven hair tumbled around her shoulders, which she shyly brushed back as she shifted from foot to foot.

"Yeah I am!" Aang turned to face her and beamed at her with bright eyes, "Are you the one who sent the letter? Or can you show me who did?"

"Umm, yes that was me," she said, straightening a little. "I thought you'd want to come see for yourself, but I didn't know if it was somethin' you would be concernin' yourself with..." She trailed off uncertainly.

"I'm always happy to help!" Aang said, "So what can you tell me about this? When did it start? Anything other than what it looks like?"

"Well, it started about a week ago," the woman began. "At first we thought it was just a storm, y'know? But then it just kept gettin' bigger, and that lightning started up. Then, a couple days ago, we got hit by an earthquake, worse than any I've ever seen. We thought that it must be the spirit world, and that they were angry with us, but now I'm not so sure." Her voice lowered even further. "Yesterday morning, two of the children came to me, sayin' they found a man lying in the road. He was cut up something awful, but what was really strange was his arm and leg. I'd never seen the like, and I've been wondering if _he _isn't a spirit himself!"

Aang looked at the rest of his companions. His expression tightened slightly, "Could we meet him? If he is a spirit I'd like to see if I can sense it. Katara here," He gestured towards the waterbender, "knows some healing techniques."

"Of course, Avatar," the woman bobbed her head. "If you'll come with me?" She turned and trotted off, pushing her way through the gawking crowd, gesturing for them to follow.

The town was a cluttered one, still stubbornly clinging to the old Earth Kingdom layout. Here, the houses were made of the traditional mud and bricks, rather than the new stone that bigger towns had recently been adopting. Dirty children chased even dirtier dogs through the streets, pausing as they passed to stare unabashedly at the Avatar and his exotic arrow tattoos. Drying laundry swayed in the breeze, hung out on lines stretched between buildings. Occasionally, a pair of ostrich horses would trot by, pulling a loaded cart between them.

Kaori stopped in front of a door painted a bright color of orange. "Here we are," she said, putting a hand on the knob. "He was sleeping when I left."

"And you say you found this guy _in_ that crazy storm?" Aang stepped inside the room to find a figure curled up under a thin cotton blanket, facing away from the entrance.

"Well, it wasn't me," Kaori reminded him, twisting her fingers together anxiously. "Two of the boys from the village found him. They came and got me, and I brought him back and patched him up."

"He looks kind of short for a spirit," Zuko mused.

The blonde jerked his head towards them, glaring at the firebender who mentioned _"The s-word." _He practically jumped out of bed and bolted towards Zuko. Edward grabbed Zuko's shirt and pulled towards himself, he let go and stepped out of the way, letting Zuko slam into the wall. "Who are you calling short?! I'm not _small_, or a **bean**, or a _**shrimp**_!" Edward shouted and exhaled heavily through his nose, glaring fiercely.

Zuko whipped around, rubbing his forehead, and took a step forwards until he was towering over the smaller man, a glare fixed on his face. "I'd watch who you throw around like that, Shortstack, because you look pretty small to me."

Edward held eye contact, staring up at Zuko. He opened his mouth to yell more but was interrupted by a jolting pain in his abdomen. His flimsy cotton outfit the nurse had loaned him had grown a red puddle. He clutched his side and fell to his knees just as a spurt of blood erupted out of his throat.

"Woah Zuko!" Aang gently pushed the firebender back a few inches, "You can't just go around making people vomit blood like that!"

"I didn't touch him!" Zuko protested.

"God, you've gone and popped your stiches." Kaori slid an arm under the kneeling man's shoulder and helped him back to bed. "I _told_ you not to move so much!"

Edward groaned and let the woman help him back to the cot. Katara pushed past everyone to get near him.

"Here," she said and drew out a thin stream of water from the waterskin at her side, "let me try and help."

"Holy shit!" Edward gasped, "How are you doing that?" He gawked at the floating liquid like it was the weirdest thing he'd ever seen before.

"What do you mean?" Katara asked, confused, "I'm just waterbending."

"Water-what now? That's impossible! It completely defies physics! It must be an illusion." Edward leaned towards the water and poked it a few times. "This is impossible..."

Katara just stared at him as the blonde prodded the water.

"Oh great, he's short _and_ an idiot," Zuko grumbled. Toph punched him in the arm.

"Shut up, Zuko." She was looking at Ed curiously, blank gray eyes fixed on him unnervingly. "Your leg is metal," she stated. It wasn't a question.

Edward sat up and looked at her, "Yeah... How'd you know that?" He asked, "I mean, I know you can see my arm," he lightly gripped his forearm, "but my leg is completely covered."

"I can feel it," Toph said, frowning. "It's kind of hard to miss. But how is that possible? Not even the Fire Nation can do things like that with metal."

"Lots of people have stuff like this where I'm from. There's a whole city thats basically an auto-mail mecca," Edward glanced down at his arm. "I'm pretty sure it's a unique model though, my mechanic is really good."

"There are towns in the spirit world? I never knew that." Toph looked over at Aang. "You never mentioned anything."

"Spirit world?" Edward questioned.

"Well I've never known about it!" Aang interrupted, "I know there are areas but I didn't think there were towns other than what we have as towns now. Hey, what's your name Mr. Spirit?"

"What did you call me? I'm Edward Elric. What do you mean _spirit world_? Spirits don't exist," Edward was not the type to express his opinion subtly.

"Nice to meet you Mr. Edward Spirit!" Aang beamed.

"He's the _Avatar_, Shortstack. I think he would know," Zuko snapped. "So don't try to hide it."

"How could spirits possibly exist? I mean, yes the spirit connects the soul and the body but the spirit cannot be in the physical world!" Edward moved his hands as he spoke to try and make gestures symbolizing his words in only ways his brain could understand. "What is an Avatar? Kaori mentioned something about this thing earlier too, but she didn't really answer my questions."

"I'm the Avatar!" Aang chirped, "The Avatar is someone who is a master at all four styles of bending, destined to keep peace and harmony in the world between the four nations."

"Okay...?" Edward said slowly, allowing Aang to continue.

"I can bend all of the elements!"

"When will you people understand that those words mean nothing to me!?" He shouted. "What is 'bending'?"

"Oh! I can explain it!" Aang smiled happily. "After all, I am an expert on the stuff."

Edward's face was blank, with his eyebrows slightly furrowed.

"Bending is when you can control an element. I'm the Avatar so I have the ability to control all four!"

"Four what?" Edward asked.

"They all take different styles and forms!" Aang continued, completely ignoring the blonde's question. Aang continued to blabber on, none of it making sense to the outsider, if anything all of Aangs "explanations" were just confusing him further. Aang paused when a hand rested on his shoulder, he turned his head and looked into Katara's compassionate eyes.

"I think he might need a different explanation," she said, "Let me try." She turned towards Edward and smiled. "So to start off, there are four different kinds of elemental bending styles: water, fire, earth, and air. Each is a different style of... martial arts almost. I'm a waterbender, which means I have a _hydrokinetic_ ability to control water."

Edward leaned his metal arm onto his leg and slightly grinned, "Now someone's starting to make sense! Tell me more about this stuff. How can you do it?"

Aang stared at Katara with a blank expression, everyone in their group was amazed at how scientifically she was phrasing everything.

"Well the moon is the source of power in waterbending, the original waterbenders learned to bend by observing how the moon pushed and pulled the tides. Then those techniques were passed down for generations. A few forms and moves were written down but really the only true way to learn is with quality experience and a good teacher."

"What about the other... elements? Where do they come from?"

"All of the other elements were learned through animals, waterbending is the only one that learned through the moon spirit-" Edward scoffed slightly at the mention of a spirit. Katara ignored him and continued. "As far as I know, airbending was learned from the flying bison. Firebending was learned from dragons, and earthbending was learned from the badger-moles."

"You lost me... those things don't exist." Edward frowned, "I must be hallucinating all of this... God damnit brain." He flicked his temple.

"We're not fake!" Toph said, her blank eyes fixed on him, "Where are you even from? How come you don't know what bending is? Everyone in the _world_ knows what bending is."

"I'm from Amestris, a small nation south of Drachma and to the West of Xing across the great desert... But I'm going to take a wild guess and assume none of you know what or where any of that is," he replied.

"Right," Katara crossed her arms.

"Look, where I'm from, we have _Alchemy_. It's a science." Everyone just gave him a blank look. "The basic process of transmutation is deconstructing something and reconstructing it as something else. However there are some specific rules, the most important one is Equivalent Exchange, which is basically the law of conservation of mass. So, you can't make more than what you have. And the materials you use to transmute have to be of the same sort of chemical makeup as what you want to create."

"That doesn't sound real," Katara cocked her eyebrow, "Maybe you hit your head on something..."

"No I'm telling the truth! Here, I'll show you!" Edward stood up from the small bed again despite the gentle protests from the nurse. He clapped his hands together and then placed them on the small wooden nightstand, all while breathing deeply. He waited for the Alchemical boom and lights, but nothing happened.

Zuko slowly began to clap. "Well that was impressive," he said sarcastically. "Please, show me more."

"What?!" Edward shrieked. He continued to clap his hands and touch the table, growing less dramatic and powerful every time. He growled and quickly rummaged through the room to find a piece of paper and pulled a pen out of the nurses apron. He drew a circle and some triangles strategically placed of various sizes. "Come on!" He roughly touched the paper and waited for something to happen. Nothing happened. He eventually gave up and forcefully sat on the bed, slightly pouting.

"So..." Katara said slightly mockingly, "That was alchemy..."

"Obviously not!" Edward shouted, "I can't do it for some reason." He looked at his hands, trying to muster up a reason for his disappearing abilities. "Maybe... hmm..." he muttered under his breath, still staring at his hands.

"I'm gonna take a wild guess here," Zuko snarked. "But _maybe_ you're crazy, not to mention short, and alchemy doesn't exist."

"I will kill you!" Edward got up and aimed a fist right at Zuko's face.

Zuko managed to twist aside, but was unable to dodge it completely. Ed's punch caught him in the shoulder, hard, and threw him back against the wall. "You son-of-a-bitch!" he snarled, clutching his arm.

Edward laughed, "You deserve it scarface!"

"You wanna call me that again?" Zuko growled, letting a tinge of orange fire begin to dance across his fingertips.

A scream and a crash halted the argument in its tracks. What sounded like an explosion shook the building moments later, and more shouts filled the air. "Guys, I can feel-" Toph began.

"Kaori! Come quick! Kaori!" A woman appeared in the doorway, panting heavily. "They're back!" She was white as a sheet, and she swayed as she stood there, one hand supporting the severe swell of her stomach.

"Oh no," Kaori hurried to the woman and led her inside. "Nahlee, I told you not to do anything too strenuous, you're too far along for that! Are you sure it's them?"

"What's going on?" Katara asked Kaori frantically.

"It's the Yangs!" Kaori rushed, guiding Nahlee into a chair.

Katara glanced towards Aang who was already headed out the door. She quickly followed after him, uncapping her waterskin.

"Who are the Yangs?" Zuko demanded, hurrying to catch up, Toph at his heels.

"A group of robbers, they target small groups of travelers and villages in the Earth Kingdom," Aang explained, "I've heard about them a few times before." He turned towards the group and shouted to get their attention, "Hey! You can't do that!" One looked over, he was holding a girl's hands behind her back as the others prodded her demanding money or there would be consequences.

"Yo boss," the henchman called, "we got a hero on our hands."

"Is that so?" The apparent leader turned away from rummaging through their captives bag. He looked up and saw the group of benders.

"Let her go!" Katara shouted, backing Aang up.

Edward peeked out from the room he was in to see what was happening. Kaori signaled for him to get down but he completely ignored her and kept his stance just barely out of the door frame.

"I think they said to let the girl go," Zuko growled, menace in every line. "I'd suggest you follow their advice before we're forced to do something we'll regret. Actually," his lips curved up into a grin. "They might regret it. I sure as hell won't."

"Who do you think you are?" the henchman holding the girl questioned, gripping her arms tighter and forcing a little squeak out of her mouth.

"Just a bunch of kids," Aang said and spun his wrists, creating a miniature tornado that blew past the robbers. They paused for a moment before laughing at the 12-year old.

"Aang what are you doing?" Katara whispered, "This isn't the time for jokes!"

Aang kicked up from the ground and pushed a burst of air behind him, propelling him into the air further. Right as he started to lose altitude he caught his wooden staff that was spinning towards him. The airbender twisted his body so that he was now in a nose dive towards the earth. He swung the staff in a way that created a gust of air that caught the robbers off guard and allowed for Aang to slow down enough to land on his feet. Most of the robbers were knocked off balance and were on the ground. They got up, now angry and more prepared for what the group had to offer.

"I don't know, Katara," Toph said casually, popping her knuckles. "I know _I'm_ gonna have fun with this." She stomped down hard, and all around her the earth shattered into a spiderweb of cracks. With a few flicks of her wrists, Toph drew the hundreds of tiny fragments into the air where they hovered threateningly for a moment, before shooting forwards with enough force to punch through muscle. The band of thugs cried out as the spray hit them, peppering their exposed faces and arms with lines of blood.

Edward gasped and leaned out of the threshold a little more to get a better view. "That was awesome..." he muttered under his breath. "I could almost... feel it," he looked at the torn up ground.

"Hey Toph," Zuko called out, over the sounds of the cursing robbers. "I'll bet you that giant steak we've been saving that I can take out more of them than you!"

Toph let out a mocking laugh. "You're on! But don't come crying to me when I kick your ass." Zuko just smirked. In one fluid motion, he leapt forwards, fire erupting from his outstretched palms. The red and orange flames raced hungrily towards the robbers, who finally realized that they were in way over their heads. Toph scowled. Refusing to be outdone, she took another step, and a massive hunk of rock exploded out of the ground, simultaneously blocking Zuko's attack while throwing the robbers off their feet. She brought the boulder around, preparing to smash it into the flailing group, when a burst of flame tore the boulder from her control. Zuko smirked at her, then sent a wave of fire crashing from his hands.

"Hey!" Toph shouted. A great wall of earth shot up from the ground, once again halting Zuko's attack, then toppled over, right over the beleaguered thugs.

"Would you stop that!" Zuko yelled, just managing to get a tongue of flame under the wall and flipping it past its target.

"Not a chance!" Toph called back.

"Guys! Really?!" Katara shouted as she glided her arms into the air, pulling water from a drain into the air. She stepped and swirled, guiding the water to a simmering patch of grass that Zuko's flames had gotten dangerously close to. "You're both just being reckless!"

"You never have any fun Katara! Learn to live a little!" Toph retorted, the ground rippling beneath her feet. A moment later a bouquet of spikes had burst into the air. Slowly, they turned until the wicked tips were pointing straight at the men, then hurtled forward, whistling with the speed of their flight.

The men ducked and shielded their faces from the incoming spikes. After the shower of stones had passed, one of them got up while the dust was still settling and headed for the little girl responsible.

"Look what you did Toph!" Katara scolded, "Now we can't see anything!"

"Don't worry I got it!" Aang's perky voice sang through the cloud. He jumped up again and as he landed he exhaled deeply, sending out a gust of wind around him, clearing the dusty air.

The robber ran towards Toph and took out a knife. The man threw the knife at her, rendering Toph unable to defend.

"Toph look out!" Aang warned, sending a jet of air to try and deflect the flying weapon. Toph waited for a signal from the earth to move, she heard the blade slicing through the air a moment too late. Just as she tried to escape it's path there was a loud clang of metal on metal. Edward was standing there, the knife's tip embedded in his steel arm. He grabbed it and threw it on the ground, glaring at it's owner. The robber gritted his teeth and started to twitch nervously, he knew not to underestimate him from the previous defenders.

Edward ran towards him and elbowed him hard in the stomach with his prosthetic. The man fell over, coughing up blood and clutching his abdomen.

"Wh-what is that _**thing**_ on your arm?!" The leader asked, trying to retreat.

Edward just stepped towards them and kept silent. He grabbed one by the collar as they tried to run away and threw the man over his shoulder, pinning him to the ground. The leader tried to save his comrade by attacking Edward from behind. "Too slow!" Edward said with a grin, and kicked behind him to land a blow square in the leaders face.

"How dare you do that to th' boss!" one said and pointed his sword at the blonde teen. Edward ducked away from the robbers swing and kicked his legs out from under him and punched his chest as he was falling. The remaining members of the gang ran away at the first chance they got while Edward was beating up on their boss.

"Damn it, Shortstack!" Zuko shouted in frustration. "We had a bet going on! Now how are we gonna settle this if you've chased the game away?"

Toph elbowed him in the stomach. "Shut up Zuko." Her gray eyes were serious. "He just saved my life."

Edward got up and kicked the leader in the ribs one's more for good measure. He walked over towards Toph. "Are you alright?" He asked.

Toph nodded. "Yeah, thanks. You've got some pretty quick moves there."

"Oh that? It was nothing, I was actually moving much slower than I usually do because of these stupid injuries." Edward rested a hand on his side. "So how do you do that stuff with the rocks? That was amazing!"

Zuko snorted. "It's called Earthbending, Shortstack. You'd think you would've picked that up by now."

"Would you stop calling me that?!" Edward snarled and clenched his fists and Zuko. He frowned and turned back to Toph.

The ground shifted suddenly, and Zuko tumbled backwards, arms flailing gracelessly.

"Zuko, I told you to shut up," Toph reminded him, pressing a foot on his chest to emphasize her point. Zuko scowled. He knocked her away and stood, brushing himself off, then stalked away, glaring darkly.

"Wow you have got to teach me how to do that!" Edward kept his eyes on the ground, trying to figure out how it all worked from where he was standing.

"What, Earthbending?" Toph asked skeptically. "Why would a spirit want to learn Earthbending?"

"I'm not a spirit! Those don't exist! But... yeah teach me... _earthbending_!"

Toph shrugged. "Whatever you say. But I'm not even sure I _could _teach you. I suppose if you can do this alchemy thing, you might be able to..." She considered him for a moment, then broke out grinning. "Well it has been awhile since I put Twinkletoes through his paces. Now _that_ was fun. I guess I could do it again. If you think you've got the balls for it."

Edwards eyes lit up with determination, "Trust me, there is **nothing **I can't handle after learning alchemy." He stuck out his hand.

Toph's smile grew absolutely malicious as she shook it.


	4. How About We Don't Listen to Her?

**Hey everyone, this is one of the authors here! Just wanted to let our readers know that reviews are actually really what keeps us going. It gives us motivation! Strength! All that jazz...**

"Absolutely not!" Kaori was furious. For someone who seemed so mild mannered most of the time, seeing her so passionate was slightly alarming. She advanced on where Edward was sitting on his cot, a fresh roll of bandages in her grip. "I didn't drag you back to town, spend almost two days bringing you back from the dead, and have to almost _tie you to the bed_-" she was close to spitting out the words, "-to stop you from running around busting your stitches, only for you to tear off before you're fully recovered!" The bandages suddenly seemed very threatening as she waved them under his nose. "So don't you even think about _thinking_ of ruining all that work!"

"Look lady, I appreciate all the help but I'm fine now! If I could just get some bandages for the road..." Edward grinned, pressing his luck.

Kaori's eyes narrowed. "If you weren't injured, I'd beat you, you ungrateful idiot! I don't care how mystical you are, or if the Avatar wants to spirit you away, you're not fit to go anywhere! I'll tie you to the bed _again_ if I have to!"

Edward was silent for a moment before slouching back on the pillow. "Fine," he said and crossed his arms. "I'll stay for another few days..."

"Good!" she snapped. "Now let me change your bandages. And don't give me that look, I'm not going to hurt you."

Edward frowned and lifted his arms to let her re-wrap his wounds.

"Even if I would like to..." Kaori muttered under her breath. She grumbled to herself the entire time, shooting him dark looks as though daring him to say another word on the subject. Finally she gathered up the dirty dressings and turned to leave, tossing a frosty goodnight over her shoulder. The bloody rays of the dying sun snuffed out as the door swung shut with a snap.

Edward laid in the small cot, trying to map out the small village in his head and remember where the earthbender had gone after he was pushed back into his cell of a room. _I'll find her and we'll leave in the night, _he thought, _I can't stand anymore of this place! _He watched the sun slowly melt into the horizon and waited for nightfall.

A few hours after the sun had gone down, and Edward was sure Kaori wouldn't come in again, he started rummaging through the drawers and cabinets for spare bandages and his old clothes. He eventually found a roll of gauze and his beloved red coat. He changed into his black pants and a random black shirt he had found, seeing as his old one was torn to pieces. _She must have ripped it up trying to save me..._ Edward sighed and grabbed the pen and paper on the small wooden desk that was near his cot. _Thanks a lot for the help, you saved my life. _He wrote and tossed the paper onto his pillow. With the gauze in his pocket next to his silver military pocket watch and his signature red coat over his shoulders, he pulled on the white gloves he used to cover his auto-mail and headed towards the door. He slowly drew it open, looking around for any sign of Kaori. _So far, so good.. Now where is that gir-_ Edward's thoughts were cut off when his body made contact with something. "Ah- I was just getting some air and not snea- Oh," He paused, "It's you!" He jumped back in surprise.

Toph stood in the doorway, glowering at him, her hand still raised where she had stopped him with it. She quirked an eyebrow as she leaned nonchalantly against the door jamb.

"And here I was thinking I'd bust you out all by myself. Let's get out of here before that woman comes back and screams at me again for trying to cripple you with too much excitement, or whatever."

"You're speaking my language kid!" Edward grinned and started walking, " I cannot wait to get away from this tiny place! So where are we going? How did you guys even get here?"

"So, you got him out," a voice drawled. "What a pity." Zuko stepped out of the shadows to join them before Toph could answer. "I was hoping we'd have to leave him here. Life is so disappointing."

Edward clenched his fists and practically growled. He opened his mouth to argue but was stopped in mid breath when something huge wet and slimy rolled over the back of his head. His expression morphed from rage to horror in mere seconds.

"No Appa! Don't lick people like that!" Aang's voice came from on top of the furry beast.

Edward's face was frozen, "Th-that must be a _**big**_ dog," He muttered under his breath without turning around.

Zuko laughed. "Yeah, something like that."

Edward slowly turned around to see the giant lumbering sky bison. "I-I-I- wh-what is that?!" He stuttered, using almost all of his willpower not to yell.

"Yeah, yeah, hurry it up," Toph grouched, giving him a hard shove between his shoulder blades. "I'm ready to get out of here. Gawk later."

"How do I even get up there?"

"Oh, let me worry about that." Toph smiled at the same time that her heel came down on the earth with a resounding thud.

Edward flew into the air, he let out a slight yelp before holding his breath. He wiggled in the air before landing hard on his back. He gripped the back of his head and bit his lip. _Ow...ow...ow..._ he thought. He sat up and looked around, he was sitting in a saddle on top of the giant furry thing.

Aang waited for everyone to get on Appa before quietly calling down, "Yip! Yip!" The bison jumped off of the ground and took to the sky.

Edward gripped the saddle tightly and frantically looked around. "What is going on? Is this thing _**flying**_?!"

"Yes!" Aang smiled and cracked the reins.

"That wasn't the answer I was looking for!" Edward gripped the material tighter.

"Ha! At least you can see what's happening." Toph leaned back against the saddle rim, picking at something between her teeth. "I hate flying."

"I thought you'd have gotten over that by now," Zuko said curiously.

"What gave you that idea! It's not like I can feel anything when we're on him!" Toph stated indignantly.

"Um, I've been meaning to ask you about that..." Edward started, relaxing a little as Appa's altitude leveled off, "... are you blind?"

"You never caught that?" Toph waved a hand in front of her eyes. "Nice of you to finally notice."

"Well sorry!" Edward replied defensively, "It's not like you really show it or anything."

"Well, that's how I use earthbending. It lets me see using vibrations in the ground," Toph explained.

"Wow that's amazing..." Edward mused. "So where are we going anyway...?" He looked over the side of the saddle, "Also what am I on? I don't think anyone answered me when I asked that earlier."

"Oh yeah," Aang said and looked back to the saddle, "Toph where are we going?"

"Ahh," Toph breathed a satisfied sigh. "I thought we'd head back to your old training grounds in that canyon, Twinkletoes. Just for old times sake. But it's too bad Sokka isn't with us. I'm sure that baby sabertooth moose-lion would love to see him again."

Edward looked at Aang for a second before returning his attention to Toph. "What's...? Oh nevermind." He leaned onto his back and pressed on his wounds slightly to assure they were still closed. He put his arms behind his head and stared at the starry sky, his eyes eventually closed, opening up the pathway to sleep.

"Little guy must have worn himself out fighting with those injuries," Katara mentioned, looking down at him.

"Rise and shine boy!" a voice was yelling in Edward's ear. A very loud, and definitely annoying voice. "You're training has officially started!"

"Aahh!" Edward bolted awake, surprised by the sudden noise. He looked around at the desolate landscape encased in rocks with cliffs surrounding them. He scowled, "The sun is hardly up!"

"Is it?" Toph grinned cheerfully. "I hadn't noticed!" She hopped up from her perch on a rock above his head and slid to the ground beside him. "Not that it matters anyway. Welcome, my new pupil, to hell on Earth!"

"Tch!" Edward spat, "give me all you got girly!" He stood up from where he was laying down. He got in a fighting stance and put his fists up, "What are we going to do first? Spar a little?" He threw out a warm up punch in the air and bounced on the balls of his feet for a few seconds.

"You," Toph said, drawing an air of importance about her like a cloak, "are going to begin with a very important task." She led him over to a natural trough cut through the canyon wall, which was filled with a thick, sandy mud. "You're gonna pound this dirt until I say you can stop."

Edward furrowed his eyebrows and stared at the wall. "I'm going to... punch dirt...?" He said skeptically.

"Yep!" she replied brightly. "Now get to it Fullmetal! We ain't got all day!"

"Wait, what did you just call me?" Edward looked at her.

Toph cocked an eyebrow. "Fullmetal. You got a problem with that?"

Edward paused and looked towards the wall and resumed a comfortable fighting stance. "Uh... Never mind."

"Good. Now stop stalling and pound the damn sand!" Toph ordered, pointing at the trough.

"Right," Edward obeyed. _ Teacher has made me do weirder things I suppose. _He took his position and started hurling fists towards the soft dirt with a determined expression.

"Alright." Toph smiled and turned away. "Now remember, don't stop until I say." She strode off back towards their camp, leaving him alone with the morning sun, which had begun its steady climb into the sky, and turned the orange cliffs around him a burning, rose pink.

Edward continued to punch the soft wall, occasionally punching with only his metal arm to give his flesh arm a break. _When is that freaking kid coming back? I don't see what this is supposed to teach me. But whatever, I'm sure she wouldn't make me do anything that had no meaning to it. Teacher never did that. Well... I guess she di- _Edwards thoughts were interrupted by a sarcastic remark.

"You need a lift? Those rocks look a little too tall for you." Zuko rounded the corner, hair still mussed from sleep, and yawned widely.

Edward turned to face him, still punching the rock with his auto-mail arm, habitually keeping the other close to his body. His mouth immediately snapped into a scowl at the site of Zuko. "What the hell are you doing here?" He turned back towards the slab.

"Well, as it seems I'm stuck here for the next few weeks while Toph satisfies her weird craving to help you learn earthbending, I might as well do something interesting with my time."

"Oh right, I forgot that helping people was such foreign concept. I guess a better question would be 'what do you want?'" He started punching the earth harder.

"Hey, who said I'm not helping?" Zuko asked innocently.

"I do," Edward forcefully exhaled.

"Hey, give me some credit. I've seen enough earthbending over the years to pick up a trick or two," Zuko grinned. "Want my professional opinion?"

"Um, no not really." Edward sighed, "but I assume you're gonna tell me anyway." Edward didn't flinch away from the rock.

"Yeah, you're stance sucks." Zuko shook his head, a mock disappointed look on his face.

"You'd probably think that since this is a fighting stance and not an... _Earthbending_ stance or whatever."

"Yeah, no shit. But you aren't exactly fighting that rock now are you?"

"Look, she told me to punch it, I'm punching it!" Edward turned to face Zuko, annoyance in his eyes.

"Hey, I'm just giving you some friendly advice." Zuko shrugged, a slight smirk lifting his mouth. "If you want to do it the wrong way that's fine with me."

Edward growled and took a step towards Zuko, "Don't you play with _fire_? I hardly think you should be giving me your opinion on the matter."

Leaning down so that they were nose to nose, Zuko growled, "I think in this situation Shortstack, you should be taking any help you can get."

"Why you..."

"Oh!" A feminine voice sliced into the tension, "I didn't mean to interrupt anything!"

Edward looked to see Katara standing a few feet away with a hand over her mouth.

Zuko took a hasty step back. "Katara!" he stammered. "This is so not what it looks like!" His face began to redden.

Katara raised an eyebrow at his defensiveness. "What's it supposed to look like then?"

Zuko scowled. "I mean- not like...!" He caught a glimpse of Edward's face and colored further. "Nevermind!" he shouted in frustration, and stormed away in the direction of the mouth of the canyon, shooting a last hostile glance over his shoulder as he disappeared.

Edward slightly snorted at the flustered firebender, amused by his insecurity at the mere idea of the two of them together. _That's just ridiculous_, he thought. He turned to Katara, "Uh, I'm pretty sure he is as far away fro-"

Toph's voice cut him off, echoing deafeningly around the cliffs. "FULLMETAL, WHEN THE _HELL_ DID I SAY YOU COULD TAKE A BREAK?"

"Fuck!" Edward exhaled before bolting back to the wall and punching it furiously.

"Nuh uh, it's too late for that!" Toph was suddenly right in front of him, looking inordinately pleased. "FIFTY LAPS FULLMETAL!" she shouted in his face. "AND BE GLAD I DIDN'T MAKE IT A HUNDRED!"

Edward scowled and started running, muttering profanities under his breath.


	5. Laps

**Hey there everyone! We know you thought we were dead but we were actually just busy with school. We're not dead and we're planning on finishing up this fic soon. We have an idea that we're more excited for... But we will promise to finish this one first! Gonna beg for reviews here... As everyone does. Personally I hate it when authors do that but my partner and I just wanna let you know that it actually does help writers continue writing in a timely manner. So yeah, hope you enjoy~ **

**Mrkawaiijake & Smokeybubble **

"Wow look at him go!" Aang chirped and bounced on the stone he was sitting on as he watched Edward run.

"Meh, I've seen better," Zuko replied disdainfully, although he couldn't quite hide the flash of respect in his eyes.

"You seem to be staring at him an awful lot Zuko," Katara mused as she wiggled the sizzling pan in the middle of the group.

Zuko stared at her incredulously. "You're kidding me, right?" He turned to Aang, gesturing back at the waterbender. "She's kidding, right?"

"Look he's coming towards us!" Aang leaned forward on the rock, blocking the harsh rays of the sun from his eyes with his flat hand held against his brow.

Edward slowed down to a jog when he got closer to the group, and then to a walk. "There!" He said between heavy breaths, "Fifty-freaking-laps!" He slumped down on one of the rocks around the fire pit and panted deeply.

"Well I was just noticing that you look at him differently!" Katara continued after acknowledging Edwards return.

"Katara, I have a girlfriend," Zuko reminded her as patiently as he could.

"That Mai girl? Surely you can't still be with her! She's so far away! And empty..." Katara argued.

"What and who are we talking about?" Edward interjected, regaining his composure. "Also what's for lunch? I'm starving!"

"Mai is not empty! She just has a hard time showing her emotions!" Zuko exclaimed protectively, completely ignoring Edward's question.

"Still hungry," Edward said, boarding on a whine.

"It'll be ready in a minute or two," Katara cooed in her motherly tone of voice. "She is totally empty! I haven't seen her face change from... annoyance, ever."

"That's because you don't know her!" Zuko defended. "But that's beside the point. What I'm saying is that I am most definitely spoken for, so drop whatever idea you're getting."

Katara snickered to herself at Zuko. "Food's done!"

"Finally!" Edward licked his lips gluttonously and gladly took the plate of food Katara had offered him.

"Fullmetal! The hell do you think you're doing?"

"Eating," he managed to say before shoveling food into his mouth. "I ran your stupid laps, I have witnesses! You've got to let me regain my strength," he said taking no manners into account as he spoke with a full mouth.

Toph sighed dramatically. "I forgot how many needs you guys have." She grabbed a plate and piled it high, then plopped herself down below Aang and leaned back against the rocks he was sitting on. "At least he's not as bad as you were, Twinkletoes."

"Twinkletoes?" Edward inquired, lightly biting the tip of his chopsticks.

"That's what she calls Aang," Zuko supplied helpfully. "I always thought it was weird too."

"It's because of the way he walks," Toph interrupted, giving Zuko a shove. "Always jumping around and kind of fluttery."

"Hey it's fun being fluttery!" Aang grinned. "You should try it sometime!"

"Um, no." Edward bluntly stated, he was not one to sugarcoat answers. He was silent for a moment and chewed, enjoying the taste of his meal. It was the first hot food he'd ingested since he woke up under Kaori's care. All she'd fed him was soft mush because she was worried about his stomach. His eyes widened and flickered around the faces of the group he was in, "Hey, what are your guys' names?"

Zuko snorted. "I'm touched you cared enough to finally ask."

"Shut up Scarface, I could care less about yours," Edward spat.

Zuko's face darkened, but Toph cut across him before their scuffle could escalate. "My name's Toph," she offered, glowering at Zuko until he shut his mouth and looked away.

"And how about you two?" He pointed towards Aang and Katara. "Wait, isn't your name 'Avatar'?" He looked at Aang specifically.

"No, no, no, no, no! My name is Aang, I _am_ the avatar!" The airbender smiled and pointed at his arrow tattoos.

Edward stared blankly at him for a moment, "Yeah still not getting that..."

"I'm Katara," the watertribe girl said in a tone that emulated trying-to-hard-to-be-a-sweety aura.

"And I'm Zuko," came the sullen answer from across the fire. He sounded like he was rolling his eyes.

"Yeah good for you," the blonde headed teen smirked and stuffed another bite into his mouth.

"So what about you, Fullmetal?" Toph asked. "Ever gonna tell us how you ended up in that village?"

"The more you call me that, the more it weirds me out..." He sighed. "Well! To be honest I don't really know how I got there. The last thing I remember was... well," he paused, "doing alchemy." He thought for a second about what alchemy he was doing exactly. Instantly a memory flashed through his mind, a simple transmutation circle, a flash of light, the dark library-like room fading into a white backdrop. As he remembered he realized the people around him would never believe him if he went into more detail so he just left it as vague as possible while avoiding sounding mysterious. "I was doing some... research and it might have backfired a little bit. Still doesn't explain how I got here though." He had slowed down on his almost empty plate, as much as he wanted to learn Earthbending, his legs were still sore from running so much. _Something must have happened with the gate... _ He stared at the diminishing flames in the fire pit. _Am I on the other side maybe...? If I am than earthbending must be a similar art to alchemy. I know I felt something when that girl did it. Maybe that's how I'll get back..._ Edward started chewing on the end of his chopsticks again, his unwavering gaze aimed into the almost embers.

"Yo, Shortstack, you having a moment or something?" Zuko's exasperated voice pulled him back to the present.

"Huh?" Edward snapped out of his thoughts, "Oh, yes- I mean no... I mean, I was just thinking about my..." _Brother? No, too specific. Hometown? I wasn't though... Family? Family. _"...my family."

"Oh God," Zuko groaned. "Please tell me you're the black sheep. If the rest of your family is as annoying..." he trailed off with an exaggerated shudder.

Edward blinked at the firebender before snorting and bursting out into laughter. The rest of the group looked at him with confusion.

"Edward, what are you laughing about?" Katara said, asking what was on everyone's mind.

"Oh, it's just that there was this one time when my little brother was put into the 'same category' as me by some strangers, he was huddled in the corner for a few minutes before getting over it." He leaned against the rock and stared up at the few wispy clouds that invaded the almost perfect blue sky above.

Toph caught Aang's eye and shrugged. "Your brother, is he an, ahem, alchemist too?" she asked.

"Yeah!" Edward sat up. "Although he's not nearly as good as I am!"

"I really wanna check out this alchemy stuff you keep talking about!" Aang leaned forward on his thighs.

"I'd be happy to show you if I could do it here."

"It's just so convenient you suddenly seem unable to do it..." Zuko mused skeptically.

Edward growled slightly. He turned his attention to his hands and pressed his palms together. "I have no idea why I can't do anything..." He muttered and rested his fingertips on the stone beneath him. He furrowed his eyebrows and took a deep breath, expecting nothing. He sighed and took his hand away. As his fingers lifted from the rock a puff of smoke and bolts of light erupted in between his fingers and the stone. He gasped and cleared the smoke away. There on the stone was a miniature pillar jetting out of the mostly smooth surface. "I did it!" His mouth gaped, "Well... kinda."

Toph's head whipped around. "What did you do?" she gasped. "I _felt_ it, but... it wasn't earthbending..." She pressed a hand to the ground. "What did you do?" she repeated.

"I did alchemy! Ha! And you all didn't believe me!" He laughed a few more times and looked at the small stalagmite.

Zuko still looked unconvinced, and slightly irritated by Edward's success. "That's alchemy?" He made a show of examining the stalagmite. "I am just _so_ overwhelmed."

"Hey I told you I couldn't really do it here! This is amazing compared to nothing!"

"But this is good!" Toph was excited, fingers brushing delicately over the tiny spike. "Are you about done eating, Fullmetal?"

"Uh, yeah," Edward said reluctantly.

"Good." Toph's eyes were gleaming. "I think it's time to step your training up a little."

"Lay it on me! Just try to make it a little more _challenging_ this time around." He stood up and stretched slightly in every direction.

"As you command, O able one," Toph said patronizingly. She waved goodbye to the others and led Edward a little ways down the canyon, where the walls bulged out farther than usual, creating a wide, open area carpeted with a fine layer of sand. Walking to the approximate center of the rough circle, Toph sat down with a thump and looked at Edward expectantly.

Edward looked down at her, slightly pleased to be looking completely _down _at someone for once. "I'm not sure what you're wanting me to do here..."

"Do you know why I don't go around crashing into things?" Toph asked him out of the blue.

"I just assumed you had really good hearing and sense of space." He decided to sit down across from here since they didn't appear to be going into heavy exercise any time soon. "It can't be anything more than that."

Toph smiled. "It's a good guess, but no. Have you ever been asleep, or not really paying attention, but somehow you know when someone drops a book, or is walking close to you, even when you can't hear it?"

"Hmm..." Edward thought for a moment. "Nope," He shrugged. "I'm a pretty deep sleeper."

Toph gave him an exasperated look. "Alright, let me put it differently." She pointed over to the opposite wall of the canyon. "Look over there and plug your ears."

Edward followed the instruction and turned his head while covering his ears. _What does this have to do with anything...? _He thought and slightly furrowed his eyebrows.

"Are you ready?" Toph asked him. When there was no reply she smiled and lifted her arms into the air, breathing in deep and feeling out the ground with her mind. After a moment, her arms came whipping down, palms smacking against the dirt, and a large shock wave rippled out from where they landed. She felt it travel through earth all around her, making the rocks tremble lightly as it passed through them. On the surface, not a pebble stirred, but even somebody without earthbending should have been able to notice the shifting of the ground beneath them.

Edwards eyebrows perked up, he uncovered his ears and looked at Toph. "Did you do that?" He asked and pointed towards the wall.

Toph grinned. "Get what I'm saying? Tell me how you knew something happened."

"Huh, I guess you're right," Edward mused, his face twitched with interest as he looked back at the cliff. "I don't really know why I knew something happened, I just... knew." He turned to Toph, "I can't really explain it."

"In answer to my original question, that's how I see," Toph explained. "I see with earthbending, through vibrations that travel through the ground. This would be a bit easier if you knew what earthbending was in the first place..." she trailed off, searching for words. "Put it this way: every time you move, your weight presses down on the earth right? And each bit of earth below you shifts just a tiny bit, like what I just did with you, only on a much smaller scale. I can pick up those changes with earthbending, and read where you are and what you're doing with that. Follow me so far?"

"Yeah, I think so," Edward leaned back on his flesh hand. He brought up his automail arm and looked at his palm, flexing the metal fingers and delicately allowing the gears to whirr and click. "So is that how you knew about my automail leg? How did you know about my arm too? Neither of my arms were touching the ground or anything letting you compare them and noticing the weight difference."

"Well it isn't just weight," Toph spread her fingers in the dirt, letting the grains slide over her skin. "It's more about the vibrations. When you move, it doesn't just let me know where you are. Like right now, I can tell that you're sitting like this." She sat up and mirrored his position. "Because the vibrations don't just go through the ground, they go through you too."

Edward sat up quickly, slightly embarrassed at the way he was sitting. "So why is does any of this relate to me? It's not like I'm blind or anything."

"No, but this is one of the fundamentals of earthbending. It's not only throwing rocks around. Its actually connecting with the earth and everything in it. You have to understand the earth to get it to listen to you."

"How can a big hunk of rock 'listen to me'? I honestly had assumed from watching that you were just basically moving the mass inside the rocks, like, the carbon in them. The first time I saw you do it, the first thing I thought of was this guy I know named Greed. He could control and change the carbon hardness in his body creating an impenetrable shield. Isn't it something close to that? It has to be something chemical..." Edward shifted his legs, even when he was deeply engaged, his youthful energy got the best of him and he grew a little antsy just sitting there. He tucked his legs up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them, still focusing on Toph.

"You're not getting this," Toph pushed herself to her feet. "It has nothing to do with science!" She cracked her knuckles. "Stand up," she ordered him. "We're gonna try something I did with Aang when he was still learning. And to think I thought you'd be easier..."

"Everything has to do with science!" Edward argued and sprang to his feet. "Nothing exists _without_ science!"

"Until you let go of that thought, you're not going to be able to do this!" Toph shot back. She drew a line in the dirt at her feet. "You wanna know how I know?" The rocks beneath her began to crack, dust flying up to glitter in the sunlight. "Because the earth doesn't care about science Fullmetal. You can stand there shouting at a rock about science all you want, but it won't make that rock do anything unless you _make_ it. Now push me over this line! Or _try_ anyway..." The slabs of stone around her feet rose into the air, plastering themselves against Toph's body, until the only chink in her armor was a slim slit for her eyes. "Come on then!" she challenged, and rushed at Edward.

Edward gasped and got into a defensive stance, bringing up his arms to block his face from the incoming pile of rocks. She hit him hard and he slid back on the dirt quite a few meters. He dug his feet into the ground to try stop from moving. All that he managed to stop was the speed, she was still moving him further back, just much slower.

"Dig your feet into the ground!" Toph barked, shoving against him. "Are you gonna let me push you around so easily?"

Edward growled and twisted his body slightly so that his mechanical shoulder was against her armor. He tried to take a step forward but just ended up being pushed quickly back. He regained his footing to where it had been enough to slow her down.

"Feel the rocks around you! Use them to help you!" Toph took another step forward, her armor screeching as slabs rubbed against each other. "Make yourself as steady and strong as you can."

Edwards muscles bulged and started to ache. _I've got to get out of this soon, I don't know how much more I can take..._ He started sliding back faster, his muscles starting to give up.

"Come on shrimp, you're gonna tell me this is all you got?" Toph pushed him again, her tone mocking. "And here I was thinking you'd have a little more steel!"

Edward's face snapped into rage at the word 'shrimp.' "Who the hell are you calling a shrimp?!" He snorted and took a step forward, pushing Toph in the opposite direction. "Don't call me shorty!" He took another step, "Or a _bean_!" another, "or a little person!" and another until he had pushed her back to just a few inches away from the line.

Toph's eyes were wide, half disbelief, half excitement, as she felt herself sliding back. She strained against him, but it was like trying to lift a mountain. Her heels touched the line, and she threw him one last insult. "Who's the one who's gonna make me stop? Surely not a midget like you!"

Edward yelled some incomprehensible protest to the taunting. His limbs propelled forward with a burst of adrenalin. The girl under the mass of rock moved back only as much as his arms extended.

"Hey, Toph!" A loud voice echoed deafeningly through the canyon, magnifying as it bounced off the narrow walls. "Can you come move this rock? Aang's out with Katara doing some water bending or something, and I want to put my sleeping bag down there."

Edwards concentration immediately shattered. His limbs went numb and he started to fall backwards.

With the resistance suddenly gone, Toph shot forward, throwing Edward forward just as Zuko came into view.

The canyon walls in Edwards peripheral vision blurred as he was thrown back. His back collided with a solid object, _A rock? _He instantly thought. His head jerked back, still trying to move even though his body had been stopped. _Not a rock!_ Although much slower, he continued to fall towards the ground. He groaned slightly and his vision unblurred.

"Get off me!" Zuko flailed underneath him, only succeeding in tangling them even further together. "You did that on purpose, Toph!"

Toph's only reply was a loud laugh.

Edward shifted slightly, only managing to dig his elbow into Zuko's abdomen in an attempt to get up. "Ah, sorry," Edward half-heartedly said. He attempted to turn into a position that wouldn't require Edward to put pressure on Zuko's organs. He twisted around and found himself straddling Zuko's stomach. Before he could manage to adjust anymore, a sharp inhale met his ears. He turned his head to see Katara standing across from them.

"Woah! I didn't mean to interrupt!" She stammered, nearly dropping the woven basket in her arms.

"Ah, uh, Katara!" Zuko stammered, dumping Edward roughly to the ground as he scrambled to his feet. "This isn't what it looks like!"

"Right," she drew out the word as long as she could, "And I'm not carrying a basket filled with fruit!" She giggled. "Wait a minute," her laughter was cut short, "Toph, why are you _watching_ them?" Katara interrogated.

"Watching _what_?" Toph waved her hand in front of her eyes. "Hello people!"

Katara smirked, embarrassment lining her features, "Right well..." she blushed slightly, "Give them some privacy anyway!" She hurried over to Toph and dragged her away by the arm.

"Nothing happened!" Zuko said again, looking panicked. "I have a girlfriend!"

"Mmhm..." Edward mumbled, internally laughing at how flustered Zuko was.

"I- I'm serious!" Zuko flushed. "Whatever!" he snapped, at a loss for words, and stormed away down the canyon, the tips of his ears flaring red.


	6. The plunge

Edward wiped the slow drip of sweat coming off of his forehead. _This is not turning out the way I'd hoped_, He eyed the slowly greying mush dripping off the heated rock he was cooking on over the fire pit. _It's the thought that counts right? Man, aren't I supposed to be good at making food by now? _He poked the substance with a stick that he had sharpened and boiled, and any sort of structure it had instantly disappeared. _Ew..._

"Dear God, what _died_ in here?!" Toph exclaimed, entering the circle of firelight, a bundle of wood in her arms. She dropped the pile beside Edward's rock and took a step back, coughing. "Please tell me something died in here."

"Guess you don't like eggs and berries then...?" he laughed nervously.

"I don't know what you're making Shortstack, but that sure as hell isn't eggs and berries," Zuko broke in from across the clearing, twirling a stick idly between his fingers.

Edward's face dropped into a scowl. He picked up the heated rock with his steel arm and used his stick-spatula to fling the bubbling goo towards Zuko's direction. "Think fast!"

Zuko ducked in the last moment, and the would-be dinner splattered over the rocks above his head. He rose to his feet, glowering, and started towards Edward, vengeance written over his features.

"Pe-ew!" Katara shouted, waving a hand in front of her nose. "Toph we talked about this! It's rude!"

Aang gagged slightly and took a deep breath in through his mouth so he could cover his nostrils. He brought his free arm forward causing a gust of air to flow through the camp, specifically swerving around the firepit.

"Everyone's a critic!" Edward complained and sat forcefully down on one of the surrounding rocks. "So much for trying to make you guys some food since you've pretty much taken me in."

"Yeah, pay us back in other ways Fullmetal," Toph advised. "Katara is a much better cook than you."

Edward crossed his arms and sighed, "Whatever, Colonel..." He slumped slightly before his words hit his ears. "Woah!" He gasped, "You're not, woah, sorry about that." He looked away and scratched the side of his head, trying to cover his slight embarrassment.

"Who's Colonel?" Toph asked, tilting her head in curiousity.

"He's just this person I know back home," Edward turned towards her. "Kind of like my boss. Well, definitely my boss. He's a higher rank in the military than I am but it's not like I ever really listen to him." He half explained.

"Military?!" Katara and Aang yelled in unison.

"Yeah," Edward extended the word, "it's kind of a long story. I'd love to know more about your tattoos though!" He leaned on his knees and rested his chin on his fist, letting the other arm hang on his leg.

Aang smiled at the question, he loved teaching people about the air nomads' ways. "See, the arrows mark the flow of chi in one's body. It's a symbol for keeping the chakras flowing and happy!" As he spoke he moved his fingers along the visible parts of the tattoo.

Edward chuckled slightly and looked towards the fire that was slowly growing brighter as the sun was sinking into the horizon.

"What are you so giggly about?" Katara questioned, her lips formed in a smirk and eyebrow tweaked.

"Oh, it's nothing. Aang just reminded me of my little brother. He always got so excited to teach people things. I wonder what he's up to right now..." Edward's eyes kept focused on the fire. "Probably worrying about something."

"Your little brother sounds like he cares a lot about you," Katara cooed in her motherly tone.

"Yeah we've been through a lot. Hmm the last thing I remember doing with him was..." He thought out loud, "we were drawing a transmutation circle. I can't seem to remember what it was for though." He rubbed his chin for a few moments before throwing his fist into his other hand as if a light bulb had just popped out of his head. "We were trying to bring Hughes back! Erm- _I_ was trying to bring Hughes back. Something must have gone wrong with the formula..." The group around Edward started to fade away in his mind, just leaving him and his mouth running off and his thoughts completely bypassing any sort of filter. "No, there couldn't have been anything wrong with it! I mean- I'm still here aren't I? And with all my parts nonetheless. Something else must have happened... Did I...?" he looked up from the fire and stared into nothing. "Did I go _through_ the gate...? No, that's impossible! It couldn't have happened! What if I'm dead? What if this is where Al went when his whole body was taken?!" He started to get louder and his expression more intense. "No! Don't be stupid, Ed," he addressed himself, "Al's body was still in the gate, not the other side! It must have..." He stopped and his surroundings, the group, the camp, the giant furry beast, it all rushed back into his vision. "Did I just say all of that out loud?"

There was silence for a moment, until Zuko broke it, turning to Toph and complaining "damn it Toph, you had to pick up a crazy person. Why couldn't you have found some less insane lost puppy to bring home?"

"What are you talking about?" Toph addressed Edward, completely ignoring the firebender. "What's this 'gate'?"

"Well," Edward started knowing he had to give at least some context to what he had just said, "it's really more of uh... an idea. Pretty much in a whole other dimensional plane." He tried to word everything in a way that made him seem the least insane to the group.

"Like the spirit world?" Aang piped up.

"Well I don't know what the spirit world _is_ so I have no idea..." Edward scowled slightly, his hot-headed trait getting the best of him. "Really the only way I can explain it is that it's this big empty place that you go when you perform human transmutation. There's this big door and this guy and it's called 'the gate.' I think I got into this world by going _through_ it instead of just into it and coming back out later. But I can't really know for sure," he started rambling again, "last time I was there I was taken into the door, it showed me pure knowledge and then spat me out again asking for my leg. And then once more for my arm..."

"Does no one else find this a little bit crazy sounding?" Zuko broke in. "Anyone at all?"

"Zuko, hush!" Katara maternally scolded, "Ed's clearly pouring his heart out!"

Edward squinted at her but decided to just let her believe whatever she wanted.

"So who is this, 'Hughes' person you're talking about?" Katara questioned, taking advantage of the distant state Edward was in.

"Awe man, Hughes was the best person in the world," Edward laughed, leaning back on his hands. "He always had a smile and was so willing to help everyone around them, no matter how worthy they were or not. He just had so much love to give away in the world that it wasn't fair that he had to die because of _me_."

"You've killed someone?!" Katara immediately assumed.

"No!" Edward defended, "He just got involved in some of our research that we shouldn't have been getting into and he got caught in the crossfire. Al and I just wanted to make up for his kindness and I guess we just had to big of egos to even think that bringing someone back to life is impossible. Just like our mother! How stupid are we?!" Edward leaned forward and put his forehead on his palm.

"You lost your mother...?" Katara's fingers drifted to her necklace that was once owned by her own mom.

"Yeah..." Edward looked into the fire, "When I was really young. She got sick and died." He intentionally left out a lot of details. As much as he was sharing with them, there were a few things he needed to keep to himself.

"My mother is gone too," The waterbender felt a newfound bond with the firey blonde.

Edward looked up at her, "I'm sorry to hear that." He tried changing the subject to avoid the womans possible emotional outbursts connected with the topic. "So now that I think I know how I got here, the only question is how I can get back. Aang, earlier you mentioned something about being able to cross into uh a different 'world'?" He turned towards the airbender.

"You mean the spirit world?" Aang asked leaning on the edge of his rock seat.

"Sure, this _'spirit world,'_ what exactly is it?" Edward asked.

"It's the realm of the spirits!" He beamed.

Edward stared at him, his eyebrows slightly furrowed. "Uh, alright. Is there anyway you could describe it **without** using the words: spirit or world?"

Aang's face twisted into thought. His eyes darted around, as if they were searching his brain. "It's sort of like, where a bunch of demi-gods that sometimes have influence on our way of living but sometimes just kinda be there."

Edward's expression was almost blank, "And you've _seen_ these things? Do you go to a whole different place?" He was becoming more and more interested that this might be the way for him to get back home.

"Sometimes!" Aang chirped, feeling helpful. "Sometimes I'm actually just here and see my body but the spirits are around me and I can talk to them.

Edward's hopefulness vanished and his belief in Aang's words were gone. There was no way he could talk to fictional things. _Maybe when people were saying that the Avatar was 'special', they actually meant completely insane. _He sighed and got to his feet. "I think I'm going to go think for a while." He started walking away from the campsite, the darkness of the night surrounding his field of vision.

His eyes were too used to the campfire light to make walking around in the dark in an unfamiliar land easy. He stumbled and tripped on lots of stupid little things like sticks and rocks, even some sort of furry thing with a shell, it made a duck noise at him. He eventually just decided to sit down somewhere to avoid further tripping. His eyes slowly became accustomed to the darkness and it was easier to see things. Edward saw that he had found the perfect place to sit down because just a few feet in front of him was a giant cliff above a huge lake. He stared out at the star covered sky and drifted into analytical thought about alchemy and what Aang had mentioned about the spirit world. He was thinking more about alchemy than the spirit world though, since it enveloped every aspect of his mind and personality. He was nothing without alchemy.

_I hate this! Why can't I use alchemy here? It's not like the world is any different physically than mine. Unless I'm actually dead somewhere and this is an afterlife of sorts. But then why would I even end up injured if I weren't really alive?_ Edward's fingers curled into a fist and he slammed his hand into the ground in a fit of annoyance. The world started shaking around him, or so it seemed anyway. He frantically looked around for the source of the rumbling and noticed that where he had punched left an unusually large dent in the ground to be from human strength. Cracks shot out through the earth from the hole and the cliff edge shook. He gasped and tried to scurry away from the cliff. He got to his feet and jumped just as the ground fell. He reached out for the sturdy piece of rock and managed to grab a chunk of grass, his feet dangling above the huge body of water below. He watched as the cliff's edge fell into the liquid a few seconds after falling, making a huge splash before just disappearing out of sight. He bit his lip and looked up to try and think of a way to pull himself up without disrupting the plants roots. Before he could even have a moment of thinking time, his grip was lost and the grass and mud slipped away from the rest of the field.

Edward was panicking. He braced himself for the slap of water tension soon to greet him, hoping that it wasn't as deep as it looked from up there. The fall was just a second longer than he had expected and that was just enough time for Edward to let his guard down before forcefully hitting the dark blue surface. He thrashed about, shivering from the icy temperature and gasping for any air he could manage to get into his lungs. _This is bad! This is bad! I need to get out, I can't swim! _Edward calculated that he had a few more seconds before he would sink from the weight of his automail. "Help! He shouted as loud as he could before taking one final inhale. The surface of the lake got farther and farther away as he sank deeper into the pool. He held his breath for as long as he could but the fear that had taken over his brain had given orders to hyperventilate, making it extremely hard to keep the air he had in his lungs. He opened his mouth and most of the surplus air he had managed to get escape. His eyes opened even against the harsh sting of water, unable to remain shut any longer. He stopped thrashing and drifted to the bottom of the lake, his already dark surroundings fading to black.


	7. He's not as angry as he seems

The night air was warm and muggy. A lazy wind blew through the branches of the trees, making the leaves rustle together like the soft shush of the rain. For a midsummer night, the brush of the breeze tickling over skin was a welcome relief. Under Zuko's feet, the lush grass was coated in a fine layer of dew that sparkled in the bright moonlight, making each blade shine as though plated in silver. As he stepped deeper into the shelter of the woods, shadows gathered about him, slinking between the trunks and flitting through the canopy with unnatural, sensuous movements.

Zuko had never minded the dark. He had always enjoyed it, the quiet and the peace that came with it, when he could be alone with his thoughts. Especially after his mother had vanished, and he would wander for hours through the empty palace, dodging past sentries and pretending he could find her just around the next unlit corner. There was no one to please when you were alone, hidden by the blackness that swarmed between torches. There was no one he needed to pretend for, no one to prove himself to, nothing but the noise of the crickets singing from the bushes.

Many nights Zuko found himself here, strolling aimlessly under the ebony sky, with no purpose than just to walk, feeling the night air wrapping around him. Behind him, he could hear the others still around the campfire, laughing at some joke while the embers popped and crackled in the background. There was another reason he wasn't afraid of the dark. How could he be afraid of the shadows when he carried fire and light at his fingertips?

So he walked, letting the sounds of his friends fade into the forest around him, listening to the new sounds of wind in the trees and the snap of twigs breaking under his feet. It was only once he had walked a fair distance that a new noise shattered the reverie he had sunk into. A noise that most definitely did not belong among the sleepy, nighttime calm. It boomed out from somewhere to his right, a distinctive crash of rock sliding against rock, rising to a high pitched shriek until the ground shuddered and a loud crack split the air. Zuko paused for a moment, staring in that direction, torn between curiosity and worry. _It's probably just a rockslide or something. Thats normal so close to a canyon, right?_ _Right._

Still, something held him there, listening hard to the screech of breaking stone. And then he heard it, almost buried beneath the deafening echoes that were beginning to die away. A shout, desperate, that sounded a hell of a lot like someone yelling for help. Edward's voice.

"_Fuck!_" Zuko swore. _The hell has he done this time?_ he thought angrily, even as he turned and sprinted towards the uproar, which was quickly dulling to the sound of earth hitting water. The trees blurred as he passed, until suddenly they opened up and he nearly hurled himself of the edge of a cliff that plunged at least thirty feet down to an expanse of blue-black water, ripples still spreading out along its surface. Cupping his hands around his mouth, Zuko shouted "Ed!" at the top of his lungs, his gaze travelling across the rim of the cliff. Most of the edge was intact, but the part directly in front of him looked as though it had violently torn away and plummeted into the lake below. Clods of dirt were still tumbling down the sides, and Zuko looked over the edge with growing horror, praying Edward's head would pop up and he could yell at him for being an idiot and breaking the entire cliff. The water stayed dark.

"C'mon, dammit!" Zuko breathed, clenching his fists. Seconds passed, and nothing broke the surface. "_Goddammit!_" he cursed again, and pulled his shirt over his head, then ripped off his shoes. Taking two steps back, Zuko swore again and threw himself off the edge of the cliff.

He had a moment to be insanely grateful for the diving lessons Katara had once given him, and then the water closed over his head. The closest comparison he could come up with was like being thrown through the wall of a building, except the wall was made of steel and it was several inches thick. The breath was knocked from his lungs even as he tried to hold onto it, a stream of bubbles billowing out from his nose until his brain kicked in again and he realized he'd probably need some of those unless he wanted to drown. His jaw snapped shut and he opened his eyes, straining to see anything in the murk. The water was muddy, (which made sense, he supposed, after a fucking cliff just crumbled into it) and he squinted, swimming down deeper. Shapes seemed to loom up at him, darting away as soon as he neared, and he had the unpleasant sensation that a massive lake monster was about to swallow him whole. _When this is over, Shortstack is going to owe me big time._

Something bumped his arm. Zuko jerked away, a startled cry escaping him along with yet more precious air, and raised his arm. He had no idea if he could Firebend underwater, but by this point he was willing to find out. There was no way he was going to die by giant fish after everything else.

A limp hand drifted in front of his face, pale and ghostly in the faint light. Zuko grabbed it, immensely relieved it hadn't been a fish, and pulled Edward around to face him. Edward's face was slack, eyes closed, pale as bone. His hair had come loose from his braid and drifted in a gauzy cloud around his head, and Zuko shoved away the thought that he already looked dead. Frantically, he shook him, but Ed's eyelashes didn't even flutter.

Zuko's lungs were burning. He looked up, knowing he was out of time, and seized Edward under the arms. He kicked, once, twice, but Edward's automail was too heavy and dragged them back down. This was bad. Zuko kicked again, but with only his legs to propel them it was next to impossible. Without meaning to, another cascade of bubbles escaped him, the pressure in his chest building unbearably. Desperately, Zuko did the only thing he could think of. He reached for his Firebending, and the water around them exploded.

Zuko shouted aloud as boiling water enveloped him, burning red-hot against his skin. But miraculously, they were moving, shooting upwards, borne by the scalding water he heated under his feet. The surface rushed closer, and Zuko gritted his teeth to hold back a howl at the familiar charring sensation wrapping around his legs. And then they were erupting up out of the water, with flames, real flames bursting from the soles of his feet and throwing them clear of the black expanse of the lake.

Zuko landed hard, skidding for several yards over the sand and rocks. His skin felt like it was on fire and the pebbles digging into his side weren't helping. He gasped in a breath of the sweet night air, and for a moment he couldn't do anything but lay there, feeling the inhale and exhale of his lungs.

Something was pressing against his chest. He shifted slightly, trying to slide it off, and when it did it hit the sand with a dull thunk. A mess of hair covered Zuko's face, and he brushed it away irritably. Why the fuck would Edward have such long hair anyway?

"Holy fuck, Ed!" Zuko jolted upright, his hands scrabbling for a pulse at the other man's neck. There wasn't one. "Fuck, fuck, fuck, _fuck,_" Zuko chanted, crawling to his knees and placing his hands over Edward's heart. He continued his litany as he began chest compressions, then pinched Edward's nose and breathed into his mouth.

"_**OH MY GOSH**_" Katara squealed as she rounded the corner to see Zuko shirtless and on top of Edward. "I knew you two had something going on! Oh! I'm so sorry to have interrupted!" Her face flushed and she covered her mouth, keeping her eyes glued to the two boys.

Zuko groaned inwardly. "Katara now is _seriously _not the time, okay?" Edward still wasn't moving.

"Right, right, I'll stop interrupting you rocking him into a _sex coma_," She giggled and scurried away.

"No!" Zuko called out. "Katara I need you to-!" But she had already disappeared.

"God _damn_ it!" Zuko raged. He was going to have a nice, long talk with that woman when this was done. He pounded on Edward's chest again, then put his mouth over the other man's and breathed. "C'mon man, wake _up!_"

That last compression on Edwards chest sent a majority of the water up through his trachea. He coughed and instinctually tried to rid his body of the foreign substance.

A gush of water filled Zuko's mouth, making him rear back in disgust. He twisted to the side, gagging, and thought that it was a good thing the day was almost over. By the rate it was going, he didn't want to see if it could get any worse.

Edward's eyes lazily opened. The first thing to appear in his sight was the fuzzy outline of Zuko's figure.

The second thing to appear was Zuko's right hook heading rapidly towards his face. The blow snapped Edward's head to the side, and pain spiked out from his cheekbone.

"You fucking idiot!" Zuko shouted. "The hell were you thinking?"

Edward turned with the punch and got on his elbow to cough out the remaining water which triggered him to vomit. He breathed deeply and fell onto his back again, looking up at Zuko. "Tha...thanks," He was able to get out in between breaths.

Zuko dragged a hand through his hair. "Just... just don't fall off a cliff next time, okay?"

"Jee, I'll... I'll try not to," Edward practically whispered through his panting. His eyes gently closed again and his muscles relaxed.

"No, stay with me here!" Zuko shook him, but he was well and truly unconscious. Zuko swore. Why the fuck did Katara have to run off like that? Now he'd have to carry Edward all the way back to camp, which was God knew how far away.

"Okay, okay I can do this," he muttered. He pushed himself to his feet, and immediately had to rethink that statement as his legs buckled. The burns all across his calves and heels screamed when he put weight on them. Fuck, he hated being right. Within a couple of minutes, his day _had _gotten worse.

"And so I walk to the shore to refill my bending water flask and there I see _Zuko_ and- Oh shh! I think he's coming back!" Kataras voice could be heard echoing off the canyon walls, as much as she thought her gossip could only be heard by the group at the campfire, she was wrong.

Zuko's feet were _killing_ him. He almost didn't register it when Katara's loud whisper bounced off the canyon walls around him. As he staggered into the circle of firelight, Edward's unconscious form slung across his shoulders, the meaning of her words sunk in. He managed to shoot her a vicious glare, then his knees gave out and he fell heavily on his face, barely keeping Edward from slamming into the ground.

"Oh my gosh, Zuko!" Aang shouted, leaping up from his seat around the fire, "And Edward! What happened to you two?!" He landed from his jump near them and poked Zuko's shoulder.

Katara stared at the two, speechless about their beat-up appearances.

Zuko turned his head, wanting nothing more than to curl up and sleep for about a month. "Ed fell off a cliff," he rasped. "Pulled him out." He lifted his head a fraction and pinned Katara with a scorching look. "Next time you see someone _who looks like they've drowned next to a large body of water_, it's probably a good assumption that something's wrong. Got it?"

Katara puffed out her lip slightly and an expression of guilt washed over her features. She sighed and took out her flask full of fresh bending water. She popped open the cap and guided the cool liquid over to Zuko first since he looked more in pain than Edwards unconscious face. The water pressed against Zuko's burns and started glowing, emitting a light teal tint around Katara's hands.

Zuko sighed, even as the burns started to itch like crazy. He'd never liked the way Katara's healing power felt on his skin. He'd always suspected it was just him, because no one ever complained about it. Just something about the cool sensations washing over him, so different to his own, fiery power, set his teeth on edge. When she was done, he let out a quiet breath of relief.

Katara moved over to the unconscious Edward and moved the bright liquid over his body to heal his burns and other various small injuries. She silently got up and headed into her tent when she was all done. Her expression was unusually neutral, showing no signs of either regret or happiness. _There is no way they're not together_, she thought and pouted a bit when in the privacy of her small lodgings.


	8. Golden to demonic

Edward awoke to the sound of rocks smashing against each other. He bolted up and looked around for the ridiculously loud noise. He eventually found Aang and Toph throwing rocks at one another. _Oh... It's just that, _he thought, breathing a slight sigh of relief that he wasn't falling off another cliff. _Wait, _his expression turned to confusion, _Since when did that become a __**normal**__ thing?_

A fine layer of dirt had settled over Toph's hair and clothes by the time she finally noticed Edward hovering over to the side. She scowled, flinging a last boulder over her shoulder and sending it spinning towards Aang, before shouting "took you enough time to wake up, Fullmetal! What the hell possessed you to jump off a cliff? You idiot!"

"I fell!" He called over and started walking towards her. His first step felt a little crooked and he paused to check his automail. It seemed to have been a little dented in the fall. "Fuck," He said under his breath, "How am I going to get that fixed...?" He put his pant leg back down and continued walking over to the grimy child. "I just punched the ground and the whole freaking thing imploded on itself!"

Toph's glare slipped a little, and almost despite herself, her attention sharpened. "Really now? Tell me exactly what happened."

"Well I punched it with my automail hand so I think I just hit it too hard and it was too weak..." Edward studied her sudden interest, "Why? Do you think it's something else?"

"What, you mean the thing we've been training you in for the past few days? No, of course not. That would just be ridiculous." Toph snorted. "Seriously, you can't answer that question on your own?"

"But I've had such trouble with it when I was doing it correctly!" Edward crossed his arms in annoyance, "Why would I possibly just have a burst of energy when I was just sitting on some cliff? That never happens with alchemy, you would need to be in a specific transmutation circle or around some special artifact... It doesn't just happen randomly! That's illogical!"

"Fullmetal, you seriously need to get over this logical fetish you have." Toph sounded slightly exasperated. "It's really holding you back. The key to bending isn't some fancy circle you draw. The key" -she jabbed one finger to his chest, right over his heart- "is here. What were you thinking about when you punched the cliff?"

"Well," Edward started looking back on last night, "I was thinking about Alchemy. And uh... my family."

"Uh huh," Toph said encouragingly. "Keep going. How did that make you feel?"

"Pissed off and lonely."

"Why? Because you're basically useless here without your Alchemy?" she pressed mercilessly.

Edward gritted his teeth and frowned, "I'm not _useless_." His hands clenched into fists.

"Right, right," Toph replied sarcastically. "You've just been a huge help with everything. You refuse to learn, which makes being out here nothing more than a big waste of time. You spend every minute you can moaning about how everything is so much easier with _Alchemy_, and the rest of the time you focus so much on how things _don't make sense_ that you can't bring yourself to see beyond that! If it wasn't for you, we'd still be in Republic City where we should be, helping the people who actually need it!

Edward exposed his clenched teeth and practically snarled at her. "Would you stop bashing me?!" he shouted and raised his fist, hurling it at her. A huge hunk of rock came up out of the ground and followed the motion of Edward's fist flying towards Toph. It caught his attention and he averted his gaze away from where his punch was about to land and watched the rock. He only snapped back to attention when his automail arm made contact with something. He quickly looked towards Toph to see how hard he had hit her only to see a slab of stone on the ground and crumbs of rock in his joints.

In the last moment before he'd made contact, Toph had managed to throw a shield up between them. As she poked at the shattered pile of rocks with one foot, Toph's triumphant smile became apparent. "And _that_, Fullmetal, is what matters in Earthbending."

Edward stared at the rubble speechless, his mouth agape. "I.. I...I...," He stuttered.

"Come on." Toph cocked an eyebrow at him. "How much do you want to bet that you can't do it again?"

Edward stared at his hands then looked at the hunk of rock laying next to Toph. His expression snapped into determination and he took the stance Toph showed him in their first lesson, he simultaneously pushed out one palm, fingers curled, away from his chest and brought the other close to his side. The rock exploded forward with a dazzling display of debris and dust. Edward coughed a bit, still holding his stance and when the dust cleared from the air, he saw that the piece of Earth had moved quite a distance away from the two. The blonde's golden eyes widened and his lips curled into a massive smile. He looked back towards Toph, "Did you _see_ that?!" He shouted in excitement.

"My _God_, you people!" Toph waved a hand in front of her blank eyes. "Does no one know the meaning of _blind?_ What you meant to say was: Whoa, did you feel that?! And the answer to that is yes. You finally got the hang of it Fullmetal."

"Right..." Edward said sheepishly, his face flushing slightly. _She doesn't act blind at all..._ "Wow! I can't believe I actually did it! I- wow!"

"Do you feel anything?" Toph asked. "With your alchemy, I mean. Any magical switches been flipped?"

Edward felt his spine tingle with energy. He looked to his open palms and took a deep breath in, letting his eyes close. He clasped his hands together and flared his nostrils, exhaling heavily and shoving his hands to the ground. His eyes bolted open and flashed with intensity. As his hands hit the ground, pillars of stone shot up all around the hunched over teen. Behind Toph, a metal statue of a suit of armor stood from the ground, bolts of alchemical energy flaring around it.

As the ground shook from the alien force crashing through it, Toph stumbled forward to her knees, pressing her palms flat against the earth.

"Holy..." she whispered, overwhelmed by the immense amount of sheer power she could feel humming through the stone.

Edward's heart raced. He looked up from his hands to the forest of rock.

"You..." Toph breathed, climbing back to her feet. "You did this? This is alchemy?"

"The metal is," The blonde said a little breathless.

"The metal?" Toph asked, turning to face the armor. She ran light fingers over every crevice, feeling the soft plume at the crown of the head and the jagged rivets where pieces overlapped. "Why a suit of armor?"

Edward slowly got to his feet and walked over to the copy of his younger brother. "Well," he started, "This is what my younger brother... wears." He put his automail hand to the metal.

Toph raised an eyebrow. "He wears a suit of armor everywhere? Why?"

"Uhh- Let's just say it's related to my prosthetics."

Toph opened her mouth to question further when she heard Katara's footsteps.

"What happened here?" the waterbender asked and made her way through the stalagmites.

"Fullmetal here finally learned earthbending!" Toph said, a cocky grin lighting up her face. "I told you I'm a great teacher."

Edward frowned at her. "I've also figured out how to perform alchemy in this world."

Katara gasped and smiled, "Wow! Can I see?" She intertwined her fingers together.

"Uh, sure." Edward clapped his hands together and faced his palms towards all of the protruding rock behind him. Alchemical energy sparked around the mass of earth and the coulombs began to shrink into the ground until the earthy floor was as Edward had remembered it before.

Zuko stepped from the cloud of settling dust as the last pillar disappeared, surveying the scene approvingly.

"So, this is alchemy." He smirked. "I've gotta say, it's a lot more impressive than the last time."

"Shut your damn face!" Edward growled.

Zuko's eyes narrowed. "You should be talkin' a lot nicer to me than that, Shortstack. Seeing as _I_ was the one who almost drowned to save your sorry ass."

"Yeah, yeah, **you** almost drowned." Edward blew a stray strand of hair out of his face. He did appreciate that Zuko had saved his life, but there was no way in hell he'd let Zuko know that. "I can't wait to get out of here! You firebenders are so rude! Hey, where's Aang by the way?"

"He had to fly back to Republic City on urgent business," Katara told him.

"Wait, on Appa?" Toph asked incredulously. "Is he planning on leaving us stranded here?"

"No he took his glider. It's a long way but he thinks he can make it by following the right air currents."

"Oh," Toph said, not sure whether to be relieved that there was transportation available or disappointed that Appa was still there and they would be flying yet again.

Katara smiled sweetly at the two for a moment before gasping ever so slightly and frantically looking around her. She took a few steps in all directions and bit her lip. "Uhm... Have you guys seen Momo? I just had him here with me a moment ago."

"Aang didn't take Momo with him?" Toph asked, confused. "I thought he would have."

"Who- or... _what_ is 'Momo'?" Edward questioned, "I think I read somewhere that 'Momo' is the word for 'peach' in Xing..."

"Momo is Aang's pet lemur," Katara informed him while walking over to a nearby berry bush. "Where is... Oh nevermind. Toph, Can you feel him anywhere?"

Toph tilted her head for a moment before giving it a quick shake. "He must be flying off somewhere."

"_Flying?!_" Edward's mouth shot open. "You're trying to tell me that a _lemur_ is _flying! __**What?!**__" _

"We'll explain later, Ed," Katara hurried off and signaled for Toph to follow.

"Seriously, you're still surprised by this stuff?" Zuko pointed out once the two women had disappeared, rolling his eyes. "You'd think you'd have started to take it in stride by now." He pushed himself away from the canyon wall and trailed after them, shouting back to Edward, "well, come on! Katara'll be insufferable if we don't help out!"

"Uh, I'll stay here for a bit I think," Edward called out. He stared at the ground and picked up a nearby stick.

Zuko shrugged. "Don't say I didn't warn you!" A moment later he had vanished behind a bend in the rock.

Edward started sketching runes into the ground. "This is gonna take a big transmutation circle..." he thought to himself.

"I can't believe we just spend _two goddamn hours_ coaxing that stupid lemur down a tree," Zuko groused, rubbing at a new scratch on his arm. "Why the hell couldn't we have left him to the cat owls, huh?"

"Would _you_ like to deal with the wrath of the Avatar after we tell him that you left his pet lemur to cat owls?" Katara sneered.

"Better than being _mauled_ by angry cat owls!" Zuko exclaimed. "I'm gonna be pulling feathers out of my hair for weeks! Weeks, woman! Do you-" he cut off abruptly as they rounded the corner of the canyon. "What the hell?" he gasped instead, jaw dropping.

Edward was scratching in the final details of his masterpiece. The circle was intricately covered in runes, patterns, and phrases. He wiped his brow and walked back a few steps to see his transmutation circle. He noticed the others and smiled at them, "Did you find your... thing?"

Zuko nodded dumbly. "Uhh, what's all this?" he finally got out, still trying to take in the circle that was at least seven feet in diameter.

"Uh, well," Edward started. "This is alchemy. Most alchemists need a transmutation circle to do any alchemy at all. I have this special ability to just clap my hands and do it because I gave enough to learn that sort of skill. But for extreme alchemy like this, even I need a transmutation circle."

"And what sort of alchemy is this, exactly?" Toph queried.

"Something technically illegal in my country, I don't think you'll rat me out though. I'm going to have to perform human transmutation on myself in order to cross the gate to get back."

"Uhh, come again?"

Edward sighed and pointed at the circle with his stick, "This will amplify my alchemic abilities so that I can perform huge alchemical things!"

"Ooohhhh..." All three members of his audience nodded in understanding.

"So does this mean you're going to try to go back?" Toph asked, voicing what was on everyone's minds.

"Yes," Edward said bluntly. "I need to try and get back to my friends and family and everybody who is counting on me back home."

"But what about your Earthbending training?" Toph burst out. "Are you sure that you'll be able to do this much alchemy when you only just got the hang of it?"

"I'm a fast learner," Edward looked into her faded eyes.

"So," Katara paused trying to find the right words, "this is goodbye?"

"Yeah."

"Well that was quick." Zuko looked almost disgruntled. "How are you gonna pay me back for saving your stupid ass from drowning?"

Katara hit Zuko on the back of his head, "You are so rude!" She frowned at him.

Edward cracked a smile and threw his stick a few feet away from the circle. "I figured your ego would be too big to think that you'd need saving one day!"

"Shut up, Shortstack." But there was a hint of a smile touching Zuko's lips as he offered his hand to Edward. "Well, I guess this is it then."

The blond took his hand and gave it a firm shake. He beamed, "I'm glad you finally warmed up to me."

"Yeah, don't flatter yourself."

"But I'm such a wonderful person!" Edward laughed.

While his eyes were closed, Katara lunged at him and wrapped her arms around his neck. He blushed slightly and glanced at the mess of hair that was now invading his face. "Goodbye, Edward!"

"Uh, Goodbye, Katara," Edward didn't really know what to say. He hadn't gotten to know her very well, she was just kind of there while he was training. She released him and smiled cheerfully at him; he smiled back.

"Yeah, yeah, we get it, it's all very touchy feely and all that crap." Katara was shoved rudely aside as Toph stepped up to Edward and punched him affectionately in the arm.

He recoiled slightly and rubbed his bicep, "Bye, Toph."

She raised an eyebrow. "'Bye Toph. _Bye Toph_?' That's all you have to say to me?"

Edward was silent for a moment before sarcastically smiling, "Yeah, pretty much."

She punched him again. "You ungrateful little brat. I take back any praise I gave you as my pupil."

"That's a whopping total of zero!" He sighed, "I'm glad to have met you all, although your world is freaky and I don't think I ever want to come back."

"Alright, this is heartwarming and all," Zuko cut in. "But don't you have your own world to get back to?"

"I'll bet my little brother is worried sick about me, who knows what's going through his mind?" Edward turned towards the Transmutation circle and placed his hands on the ground, his fingertips touching the very outer ring. He took a few deep breaths and the lines drawn into the ground began to glow gold.

"Oh, wow! It's so beautiful! Toph, are you seeing this?!" Katara gasped in amazement.

"Guys, _blind_! What aren't you getting about this?! Do I have to spell it out for you?! It's not that foreign of a concept!" Toph shouted irately.

Edward blew some air through his nose as sort of an almost-laugh. He stood up and stepped into the circle, closing his eyes and holding out his hands, bolts of golden alchemical energy shot up from the ground. Everyone watched the sight in amazement; it was much flashier than when Aang went into the avatar state.

Soon the gold flashed into purple and black, everything around them seemed to get darker. Clouds started appearing above the group, the whole world around them seemed to be more gloomy. Edward opened his eyes and furrowed his eyebrows, his face was filled with determination and concentration. Tentacle like arms reached up and started grabbing at Edward's legs .

"Edward, no!" Katara shouted out, reaching her arm out. Zuko held her back.

Edward looked towards them and smiled one more time. His body started flaking away into the grasp of the little black hands tearing away his very being. One more blinding flash escaped from the center of the circle where Edward was standing.

When the light died down, the alchemists body was gone.


	9. Epilogue

Back in Central City, Edward was telling all of his co-workers and Alphonse about his adventure on the other side of the gate. "It was a completely different world!" He said, "I've already started recording what happened in my journals."

"How did you get back though?" Colonel Roy Mustang questioned the boy. "If you couldn't use alchemy, how were you able to perform human transmutation?"

"That's the cool part!" Edward began, "See, I was able to sort of... _unlock_ my alchemic abilities through this martial art they call 'Earthbending'." He paused and turned towards Mai, the young girl who had recently joined up with their team from Xing. "You know, how that I think about it... earthbending sort of resembles what you've told me about alkehestry. Long distance transmutation through the energy drawn from the... uh..." Edward trailed off, trying to find the words.

"Dragons pulse?" The small girl filled in for him.

"Yes! Exactly like that!"

"So that must be how you were able to do all that amazing stuff!" Alphonse cut in. "You don't need a transmutation circle to perform alchemy so why should you need it for alkehestry? It makes perfect sense!"

Edward stared at the ground, pleased with all he had done. _I wish I could let them know that I'm alive. They probably think I died since they just saw my body vanish_. His thoughts were cut off by his younger brother's voice.

"Ed? You okay?"

Edward looked up at him from his vacant stare, "Hmm? Yeah, I was just thinking about the people I met there." He grinned at the group but in the back of his mind, he knew he was going to miss Katara, Zuko, and especially Toph, probably the only person in that entire world who would teach such a stubborn, insane, hot-headed, weirdo from another walk of life.

**Well... we finished! Thanks to all of you who reviewed. It really helped. Although a lot of you didn't... you slackers. You deserve none of the thanks. Except of course for the thanks for reading! We hope you all enjoyed it!**

**~ & Smokeybubble **


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